Here is a reciprocation of generosity and gratitude so pleasing that the tale makes its own way to credit. I cannot find any meaning but this, which even kindness and reverence can give to the term "vetiti laris," "a habitation from which he is excluded," or how exile can be otherwise interpreted. This poem, which mentions his exile, proves likewise that it was not perpetual, for it concludes with a resolution of returning some time to Cambridge. The compilers of the Latin dictionary printed at Cambridge had the use of those collections in three folios; but what was their fate afterwards is not known. The style is harsh; but it has something of rough vigour, which perhaps may often strike though it cannot please. Milton was not a man who could become mean by a mean employment. His play on words, in which he delights too often; his equivocations, which Bentley endeavours to defend by the example of the ancients; his unnecessary and ungraceful use of terms of art, it is not necessary to mention, because they are easily remarked and generally censured, and at last bear so little proportion to the whole that they scarcely deserve the attention of a critick. Why a writer changed his bookseller a hundred years ago I am far from hoping to discover. J. Milton French has published five volumes of Milton’s Life Records: birth, baptism, and marriage records, In this second Defence he shews that his eloquence is not merely satirical; the rudeness of his invective is equalled by the grossness of his flattery. But of "evil tongues" for Milton to complain required impudence at least equal to his other powers — Milton, whose warmest advocates must allow that he never spared any asperity of reproach or brutality of insolence. The garden of Eden brings to his mind the vale of Enna, where Proserpine was gathering flowers. Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions. Of this omission the reason has been sought, upon a supposition which ought never to be made, that men live with their own approbation, and justify their conduct to themselves. Such is the reverence paid to great abilities, however misused: they who contemplated in Milton the scholar and the wit were contented to forget the reviler of his King. Upon his grave there is supposed to have been no memorial; but in our time a monument has been erected in Westminster-Abbey To the Author of Paradise Lost, by Mr. Benson, who has in the inscription bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton. Of the powers of the mind it is difficult to form an estimate; many have excelled Milton in their first essays who never rose to works like Paradise Lost. To the conduct of the narrative some objections may be made. The want of human interest is always felt. It could be alleged that letters miscarry; he therefore dispatched a messenger, being by this time too angry to go himself. But the passions are moved only on one occasion; sublimity is the general and prevailing quality in this poem — sublimity variously modified, sometimes descriptive, sometimes argumentative. Next year appeared Regii Sanguinis clamor ad Caelum. an uterque idem est?" Fortune appears not to have had much of his care. In every work one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have passages, a poem must have transitions. To Satan, as Addison observes, such sentiments are given as suit "the most exalted and most depraved being." Of the English poets he set most value upon Spenser, Shakespeare, and Cowley. These Mysteries consist of allegorical persons, such as Justice, Mercy, Faith. If few men would have had resolution to write books with such embarrassments, few likewise would have wanted ability to find some better expedient. Two thousand pounds, which he had placed in the Excise-office, were also lost. [CDATA[ He lived longer in this place than in any other. He afterwards went to Venice. He now reprinted his juvenile poems with some additions. If Christina, as is said, commended the Defence of the people, her purpose must be to torment Salmasius, who was then at her Court; for neither her civil station nor her natural character could dispose her to favour the doctrine, who was by birth a queen and by temper despotick. The cause cannot now be known, but the effect appears in his writings. The action is not probable. The ancient epick poets, wanting the light of Revelation, were very unskilful teachers of virtue: their principal characters may be great, but they are not amiable. Fruition left them nothing to ask, and Innocence left them nothing to fear. Thus, comparing the shield of Satan to the orb of the Moon, he crowds the imagination with the discovery of the telescope and all the wonders which the telescope discovers. He went to the university with a design of entering into the church, but in time altered his mind; for he declared that whoever became a clergyman must "subscribe slave and take an oath withal, which, unless he took with a conscience that could [would] retch, he must [either] straight perjure himself [or split his faith]. Those authors, therefore, are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most materials for conversation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, and historians. This was the greatest benefaction that Paradise Lost ever procured the author's descendents; and to this he who has now attempted to relate his Life, had the honour of contributing a Prologue. He was rewarded with a thousand pounds, and his book was much read; for paradox, recommended by spirit and elegance, easily gains attention: and he who told every man that he was equal to his King could hardly want an audience. In their first state their affection is tender without weakness, and their piety sublime without presumption. That he lived without prayer can hardly be affirmed; his studies and meditations were an habitual prayer. He had accustomed his imagination to unrestrained indulgence, and his conceptions therefore were extensive. As the best preservative against Popery he recommends the diligent perusal of the Scriptures; a duty, from which he warns the busy part of mankind not to think themselves excused. The malignity of Satan foams in haughtiness and obstinacy; but his expressions are commonly general, and no otherwise offensive than as they are wicked. Of institutions we may judge by their effects. How the question was determined is not known. He long before had promised to adorn his native country by some great performance, while he had yet perhaps no settled design, and was stimulated only by such expectations as naturally arose from the survey of his attainments and the consciousness of his powers. This however is a defect over-balanced by its convenience. His polemical disposition, again revived. His theological opinions are said to have been first Calvinistical, and afterwards, perhaps when he began to hate the Presbyterians, to have tended towards Arminianism. His widow, who after his death retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, and died about 1729, is said to have reported that he lost two thousand pounds by entrusting it to a scrivener; and that, in the general depredation upon the Church, he had grasped an estate of about sixty pounds a year belonging to Westminster-Abbey, which, like other sharers of the plunder of rebellion, he was afterwards obliged to return. By the general consent of criticks the first praise of genius is due to the writer of an epick poem, as it requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly sufficient for other compositions. He can please when pleasure is required; but it is his peculiar power to astonish. One part of his method deserves general imitation: he was careful to instruct his scholars in religion. Both before and after the Fall the superiority of Adam is diligently sustained. The Italians were gainers by this literary commerce: for the encomiums with which Milton repaid Salsilli, though not secure against a stern grammarian, turn the balance indisputably in Milton's favour. This dependance of the soul upon the seasons, those temporary and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I suppose, justly be derided as the fumes of vain imagination. But it cannot be inferred that his poem was not read or not, however unwillingly, admired. He sent his faculties out upon discovery, into worlds where only imagination can travel, and delighted to form new modes of existence, and furnish sentiment and action to superior beings, to trace the counsels of hell, or accompany the choirs of heaven. The papists appeal to other testimonies, and are therefore in his opinion not to be permitted the liberty of either publick or private worship; for though they plead conscience, "we have no warrant," he says, "to regard conscience which is not grounded in [on] Scripture. That his own daughters might not break the ranks, he suffered them to be depressed by a mean and penurious education. His purpose was now to have visited Sicily and Greece, but hearing of the differences between the king and parliament, he thought it proper to hasten home rather than pass his life in foreign amusements while his countrymen were contending for their rights. I have transcribed this title to shew, by his contemptuous mention of Usher, that he had now adopted the puritanical savageness of manners. an Momus? But Samuel Johnson had so much determination to succeed, and he resisted self-pity. This, however, his warmest friends seem not to have found; they therefore shift and palliate. Of these Italian testimonies, poor as they are, he was proud enough to publish them before his poems; though he says, he cannot be suspected but to have known that they were said "non tam de se, quam supra se.". At last, after discourse of enmity on either side, he departs: whereat the Chorus sings of the battle and victory in heaven, against him and his accomplices: as before, after the first act, was sung a hymn of the creation. Of him, at last, may be said what Jonson says of Spenser, that "he wrote no language," but has formed what Butler calls "a Babylonish Dialect," in itself harsh and barbarous, but made by exalted genius and extensive learning the vehicle of so much instruction and so much pleasure that, like other lovers, we find grace in its deformity. When Cowley tells of Hervey that they studied together, it is easy to suppose how much he must miss the companion of his labours and the partner of his discoveries; but what image of tenderness can be excited by these lines! To these notes an answer was written by L'Estrange, in a pamphlet petulantly called No blind Guides. 37 Full PDFs related to this paper. It is told that in the art of education he performed wonders, and a formidable list is given of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Aldersgate-street by youth between ten and fifteen or sixteen years of age. The variety of pauses, so much boasted by the lovers of blank verse, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. What was more than threat was probably punishment. When Milton shewed Paradise Regained to Elwood, "This," said he, "is owing to you; for you put it in [into] my head by the question you put to me at Chalfont, which otherwise [before] I had not thought of.". We read Milton for instruction, retire harassed and overburdened, and look elsewhere for recreation; we desert our master, and seek for companions. Subject:Principles of literary criticism Life of Milton by Samuel Johnson. Whatever be the faults of his diction he cannot want the praise of copiousness and variety; he was master of his language in its full extent, and has selected the melodious words with such diligence that from his book alone the Art of English Poetry might be learned. From Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets series, published in 3 volumes between 1779 and 1781.. But with guilt enter distrust and discord, mutual accusation, and stubborn self-defence; they regard each other with alienated minds, and dread their Creator as the avenger of their transgression. Work should be suspended for six months, or rather dissection, of whom nothing is a... Passages, a Speech of Mr. John Milton was not seized, nor is there any description. And more various than those of his narrative, whether it be considered as effusion. Is readily confessed he had only justified what they had done to the use of cookies on history... Was difficult to determine are known, but the effect appears in his Mercy soften. 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